


Departure

by lookingforthestars



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: AU, Airports, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:55:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24781912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookingforthestars/pseuds/lookingforthestars
Summary: He moved away ten years ago and broke her heart. Now he's sitting one gate over - which certainly makes getting stuck at the airport for eighteen hours a little more bearable.
Relationships: Chase Stein/Gertrude Yorkes
Comments: 10
Kudos: 66





	Departure

**Author's Note:**

> I hope everyone is staying safe and playing their part to protect themselves and others.

Flying was easily one of Gert’s five least favorite activities.

For someone with anxiety, airports were a battlefield. There were airline employees tossing her bag around without a single consideration of what might be inside, other frustrated flyers bumping into her at every turn, and the constant, inescapable smell of pretzels in the air. And that wasn’t even tackling the cavalcade of horrors that awaited her once she was on the plane.

And now. Now there was this.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Your flight has been canceled due to inclement weather,” the help desk attendant said in a bored tone. “You’ve been rescheduled for the next flight to Oakland International Airport at one o’clock tomorrow afternoon.”

“One…one o’clock?” Gert snapped, her jaw dropping. “That’s in like eighteen hours!”

The woman swept her long hair over her shoulder, seeming entirely unsympathetic to Gert’s plight. “That’s correct. Storms are grounding all flights from here to the West Coast. You’re welcome to reschedule your flight for another day.”

“I can’t!” Molly would _kill_ her, and Gert was going to miss watching her baby sister graduate high school over her dead body. “I have to be in California by Saturday!”

“Then tomorrow’s flight should get you there in plenty of time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there are other people who need assistance.”

Gert shot the employee her best dirty glare and stomped away from the help desk, trying to figure out her next move. Taking an Uber to her apartment and back seemed like a waste of time, not to mention expensive. Forget a hotel room within twenty miles of the airport – she didn’t have that kind of money right now. The glamorous life of a student paying her own way through school.

Her only other choice was to spend the night at the airport. An unpleasant option, to be sure, but it was only one night. There were food and bathrooms and phone charging stations. She could tough it out, right?

* * *

It had only been an hour, and Gert was _bored_. Even Didion wasn’t doing the trick. She’d tried to get some homework done, but the constant announcements and flashing signs and endless stream of travelers having the same fruitless argument with the same uninterested help desk employee were too distracting. Gert clicked off her tablet and slumped down in the stiff seat, opting to people-watch instead.

She wished Molly was there. Her little sister was almost maniacally positive and would definitely find some way to make this an adventure instead of a headache.

Leaving her to go to Smith had been a nearly impossible decision. It was never supposed to be an issue – Molly would be safely at home with Dale and Stacey and come visit her in Massachusetts whenever she had breaks from school. It wasn’t all bad, Molly liked living with Graciela and she was UCLA-bound soon anyway.

But it was hard. Going to Molly’s graduation without them was hard. Scraping together some kind of a future without their financial support was hard. Not having them made everything harder, even if it was the right choice. The only choice, as far as she was concerned.

She’d zoned out a little, so it wasn’t until her third pass that Gert realized the same guy had been sneaking glances in her direction for, like, ten minutes. He was a few rows over, at the next gate, pretending to read a magazine. Unconvincingly.

He was also really, really hot. Not her usual type, he was kind of a jock and his hair was a little too perfectly styled. But she was bored and trapped in the airport, so what was the harm in checking out his incredibly defined arm muscles? None whatsoever.

She wasn’t sure why he kept looking at _her_ , though. There was at least six social media influencer-gorgeous women at her gate who were probably much more his type.

After a few more unsubtle stolen looks, Gert stared straight back at him and raised her eyebrows, biting back a smirk when he turned bright red. _Busted_.

She went back to her tablet, trying to get back into her book and kill the – Christ, _seventeen_ hours – she had left. She was going to be functionally braindead before she even got to California.

“Hey.” Gert jumped as Hair Gel appeared in her peripheral vision, balancing a laptop bag on his shoulder. He was, impossibly, even more stacked and gorgeous up close, and for all her bravado from across the gate, Gert was suddenly about to buzz right out of her skin. “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be a creep. Um, I just…”

He pressed his lips together, looking nervous. “You just…?” she prompted when he didn’t finish his sentence.

“I think we know each other,” he finished. “Gert?”

She stared at him for a long second, wracking her brain to think if she’d seen him on campus or something – seemed like a thing she would remember – when it hit her like a ton of bricks. “Holy shit. Chase?”

He laughed, looking immensely relieved as he dropped into the chair across from her. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s me. I can’t believe you’re here, this is so weird.”

“I know! What are you…I mean, I thought you moved to New York?” Gert remembered the day Chase had confided that his family was moving. She was eleven. He was her best friend. It was her first real heartbreak.

He’d been skinny and awkward and kind of a giant nerd. Adult Chase was…not that.

“Yeah, we did. But I’m at MIT now. My mom’s in Washington, I’m going to visit her, but my flight got canceled. What are you doing here?”

“I go to Smith. It’s, uh, a women’s college in-.”

“I know Smith,” he interrupted. “A guy in my building is dating a girl that goes there.”

“Yeah. Anyway, Molly’s graduating this weekend. And I couldn’t miss that.”

Chase smiled, shaking his head. “Little baby Molly is graduating high school? That’s insane.”

“You’re telling me.” Molly was going to _flip_ when she heard that they ran into each other. She was only eight when he left, but she cried for days. Gert cried, too, but strictly in private. “My flight’s rescheduled for tomorrow. It sucks, but as long as I get there in time to see her walk across the stage, none of these airline employees have to suffer.”

The crooked grin that stretched across his face gave her a little head rush. “I can’t believe we’re in the same state. What are the odds, right?”

“Uh…one in fifty?” she ventured, feeling a little too satisfied when he laughed again. “Hey. At least we don’t have to be stuck here alone. When’s your flight?”

“Around three, I think?”

“Perfect. Mine’s at one. You have seventeen hours to catch me up on the last ten years.”

* * *

Gert was pleased to find that although Chase had changed pretty substantially on the outside, he was more or less the same person she remembered on the inside. Kind, shy, incredibly nerdy. When she asked what he was studying at MIT, he talked for thirty minutes about his theoretical physics class.

“What, like time travel?” she’d asked, half joking and half serious.

He scrunched up his brows (which was adorable, Gert thought and then immediately chided herself for thinking). “Uh, not quite that. Although it would be pretty cool if someone figured that out one day, wouldn’t it?”

“Maybe, if someone could use it to change the world for the better.”

“Ah. Still a social justice warrior, I see.” Gert tensed a little at the term, but Chase wasn’t making fun of her like those jerks in high school were when they threw the words in her face. He was smiling, and quiet like he was waiting for her to elaborate.

“Something like that. I’m in the cultural studies program. Sometimes it seems like…” Gert sighed, drawing her legs to her chest and propping her head on her knees. “I’ve been studying for three years, and I still have no idea what I want to do when I get out. There are so many problems, like, how do I even know where to start? How do I pick one to devote my whole life to?”

Chase nodded, shifting a little on the hard ground. They’d relocated after the chairs started to hurt her back, and his legs were stretched out next to hers, so close that she occasionally, _accidentally_ brushed his jeans with her hand when she moved.

It was sort of weird, actually, how not weird this was. She’d heard that in really good friendships, people could just pick up where they left off without any awkwardness. As much as had happened in ten years, somehow this felt the same. Easy, natural, fun. Nice.

“Yeah. I know. Science is kind of like that, too. Like, do you try to make it easier to grow food? Improve technology so people can have a higher quality of life? Cure disease? Which disease?” He chewed his lip thoughtfully. “I guess it wouldn’t be so overwhelming if everyone was working on something that mattered. But a lot of people are just in it for the money. My dad was always like that. People praised him for changing the world, but he only did whatever stoked his ego and got him on the front page of magazines. He definitely didn’t care about making the world better.”

Gert was so captivated by the seriousness in his eyes that it took her a second to dissect his choice of words. “Was?”

He looked a little startled, like he’d let something slip that he wasn’t supposed to. “Um, is. He’s not…he’s not dead, or anything.” Gert felt a little relief at that, even though it was selfish. She didn’t like the idea that she wouldn’t have known – or been there for – such a big event in his life. “But I don’t, I don’t talk to him anymore. I haven’t. For a few years now.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re not going to ask me why?”

“You don’t need a reason to cut an abuser out of your life,” she said, stiffening at the immediate change in his expression. Chase stared at her, his face unreadable. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said it like that.”

He bit the inside of his cheek, dropping his eyes from hers to his clasped hands in his lap. He looked uncomfortable, and Gert kicked herself for taking their easy, happy rhythm and driving it straight off a cliff.

“Chase…”

“I didn’t know you knew.”

He wasn’t looking at her, but Gert stared down at her feet anyway, suddenly finding it a little hard to breathe. “Not really. Not back then. But later, when I learned more about it, all the signs were there.” She exhaled, wondering if she should hug him but too paralyzed to make the first move. She wasn’t exactly the best person in the world for comfort. “I’m really sorry, Chase. That I didn’t know. And that it happened.”

“You were a kid. We both were.” He shrugged, like it was nothing. It wasn’t nothing, but that was just how Chase was. Everything that affected someone else was important, and serious, and worth his undivided attention. Everything that affected him was nothing. Gert always wondered why, if maybe he felt like he was nothing. She didn’t know how that would be possible. He was everything to her, at least at one point in time.

“And now?” Gert hoped he knew what she was asking. She wasn’t sure how to phrase it. But he did. He always understood her, maybe better than anyone else.

“It’s hard,” he said quietly, like if his voice was any louder if might break. Gert scooted closer to hear him, wishing they were maybe somewhere more peaceful than a crowded airport. “He’s not a good person. When my mom finally left and took me with her, it was the best day of our lives. But I still miss him. It still tears me up when he tries to reach out. And. I don’t really know what that says about me.”

Gert took an unsteady breath, feeling like she might cry for him. With him. “I think it says that you love people more than they deserve, and that’s not a flaw, Chase.”

Ten years apart, and she was acting like she still knew him. Like she had any idea what the hell she was talking about. But Chase gave her a watery smile and Gert felt like she did something right. “Thanks.”

“Yeah.” She wanted him to know that she understood. Maybe not everything, maybe not the worst of it, but… “I don’t talk to Dale and Stacey anymore. Neither does Molly.”

Chase’s eyebrows shot up, and Gert guessed he was a lot more shocked by her revelation than she was by his. Victor Stein, after all, had always been an asshole. Dale and Stacey were harmless, loving, welcoming. Perfect parents.

“Um, they were testing this mind wipe drug for PTSD patients,” she explained, haltingly, when he didn’t say anything. “They did a bunch of human trials before they were supposed to. Left thirty-six people with permanent brain damage. And they covered it up for years until the drug got approved.” Chase was watching her intently. Gert pressed her lips together. “It got out, eventually. They tried to tell me and Molly that it was for the greater good, and the drug would help a lot more people than it hurt. But I just couldn’t…I couldn’t be a part of that, you know? I couldn’t pretend it never happened and go back to the way everything was. Part of me hates them. And part of me just misses them.”

She blinked, trying to hold herself together. She hated crying, especially in public, and Dale and Stacey didn’t deserve any more of her tears. They didn’t deserve anything.

Chase hesitantly reached out, resting his hand over hers. She wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, fingers linked, not saying anything.

* * *

“This is the worst pizza I’ve ever had,” Chase announced, making a face at the greasy slice on his paper plate.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure airport air makes everything taste like dirt,” Gert rebutted as she picked at her prepackaged salad. By the time they were hungry enough to make the trek for food, it was ten o’clock and nearly every restaurant in the airport was closed. Poor planning on her part, but then again, she was supposed to be eating an incredible homecooked meal at Graciela’s house right now.

As Gert watched Chase blot the excess grease off his pizza and brace himself for another bite – it did cost eight dollars, after all – she found herself surprisingly unbothered by her current situation.

“Here, I have something to distract you,” Gert said, grabbing her phone out of her purse and scrolling through until she found the photo. She put it on the table, pointing at the figures as she talked, even though their friends were easily identifiable. “Alex is at Yale. Big surprise. Karolina and Nico took a year off to backpack through the Himalayas or some shit, and then they went to this tiny liberal arts college in Maine. Molly’s going to UCLA. Amy works at one of the Smithsonian museums in D.C., which is pretty cool. She always tells me which one and I forget.”

Chase smiled wistfully. “I really missed everyone after we moved. I wished I’d tried harder to stay in touch.”

“Eh, what eleven-year-old is good at staying in touch? People move. It happens.” Gert tried to sound nonchalant, because she was never going to tell him the truth – that she’d wanted to hear from him more than anything, but was way too terrified to reach out first and discover that he had forgotten all about her. Modern-day Gert was angsty sometimes, but she had nothing on preteen Gert. “I’m sure they’ll be really happy to hear that I ran into you.”

“Yeah. And I can actually friend everyone on Facebook without it being weird,” he smirked. “We should take a picture. So you can show Molly.”

“Good idea, come here.” Gert waved him over, flipping the camera on her phone and angling it to fit both of them in the frame. Chase slipped his arm around her shoulders, his warm breath hitting her cheek as he leaned in, and the shiver that traveled through her spine was definitely from being ticklish and nothing else.

* * *

They were almost an hour into a conversation about their favorite places in Massachusetts when Gert yawned. “Sorry.”

“I mean, it is…” He checked his watch. “Almost midnight, Gert. You should get some sleep.”

“But our stuff…” she protested halfheartedly, only to be interrupted by another yawn. Chase laughed.

“I will hold down the fort while you sleep for a few hours. We can take shifts, if it makes you feel better.”

Gert didn’t love the idea, partially because sleeping on the floor of an airport wasn’t appealing, and partially because it meant less time talking to Chase. But her exhaustion won out. “Yeah, okay, fine,” she conceded. “Wake me up when you start falling asleep, okay?”

“I’ll be fine, Gert,” he said with mock sternness. “Go to bed.”

“Good night,” she mumbled, arranging her carry-on into its most comfortable form – which mostly meant avoiding any zippers – and resting her head on it.

Gert always slept with her back to the wall, always liked the feeling of something solid and safe behind her. There was nothing more solid and safe than Chase, and his steady breathing was the last thing she processed before falling asleep.

* * *

She woke up before Chase could wake her up. The first thing she noticed was how quiet the airport was, now that most of the stragglers who were too broke to afford a hotel room were fast asleep. The second thing she noticed was that she was no longer in front of Chase. She was _on_ Chase. More specifically, her head was on his lap instead of her luggage, and Gert was wide awake in a heartbeat.

“Oh god, sorry.” She smoothed her hands over her face and through her hair as she sat up. “You could have just shoved me, you know.”

Chase put down his book, chuckling. “It’s fine, Gert. I figured you were probably more comfortable that way. I didn’t mind.”

That couldn’t be true, not when the clock was telling her that she had been asleep for three hours and his legs were probably stiff, or sore, or completely numb from her draping herself all over him. But that was Chase. Selfless to a fault. “I’m up, it’s your turn to sleep.”

“I’m fine, you can get a few more hours if you need to.”

The red rimming his eyes told a different story. “Get some rest before I knock you out and make you,” she threatened.

He smiled crookedly, and god, even tired and rumpled he was absurdly gorgeous. Who knew the lanky, dorky kid she grew up with would become…this? “Aye aye, captain.”

Chase started to arrange his laptop bag, and Gert spoke up before she could talk herself out of it. “Hey,” she said, her throat sticking from sleep and nerves. “It was more comfortable. When…just, um, if you want to. You can.”

He raised his eyebrow, and it occurred to Gert that she hadn’t actually completed a full sentence and was spouting gibberish. But he just said, “You sure?”

She nodded, holding her breath as he studied her for a second before rolling over and murmuring good night. Gert batted down the instinct to run her fingers through his hair as he rested his head against her leg. His stupid, overly styled hair that was starting to come undone and fall into his face, which had absolutely no effect on Gert at all.

Chase was out in less than a minute, snoring lightly. Gert tucked his book – advanced calculus, because of course that’s what he was reading at three in the morning – back into his laptop bag and switched on her tablet. She read the same paragraph six times before giving up, tipping her head back against the wall and taking a deep breath.

Her leg was cramping up a little, but she didn’t dare move. Not when Chase looked so peaceful. So different from the haunted kid who had spilled his guts to her about his father only a few hours ago.

There it was. That pressure in her chest again. The fluttering in her stomach as she took in Chase’s long lashes and full lips and dumb, perfect dimples.

There were only so many times she could pretend that feeling meant something else. She’d had it when she was eleven, too, although she didn’t understand it much then. Maybe this was just the resurgence of long-forgotten feelings, an unresolved crush that never got to run its course. Maybe it was the rush of happiness of connecting with her former best friend.

Whatever it was, it was unnerving. And pointless. She and Chase were two virtual strangers stuck in an airport, killing time. When it was over, she would see him, what? Two or three times a year? And that’s if they stayed in contact at all. Nothing would change, not really.

And who was to say she would still even like him, after ten years? That he would still even like her?

It was way too late, or too early, for this much thinking. Gert abandoned Didion and played around with her drawing app for a while, doing her best to keep her brain quiet while she waited for Chase to wake up.

* * *

“I can’t wait until I can take a shower. I feel grimy,” Gert said, frowning. The travel toothbrush and toothpaste in her purse was a godsend, but there wasn’t much she could do about her tangled hair or the general feeling of _ick_ on her skin.

“I’m with you. Whose bright idea was it to sleep at the airport again?”

He cracked a smile, and _damn it_ , there was that stupid fluttering again. “It was the idea of my very empty wallet and my strong desire to avoid more credit card debt.”

“Mm. Same.” There was a time she didn’t think twice about money, when she shopped at thrift stores to protest the devastating effects of fast fashion but could easily afford a twelve-dollar head of organic lettuce. They hadn’t really talked about it, but it seemed like Chase was in a similar boat since he cut ties with his dad. She had just enough for coffee and a muffin this morning, and now they were walking back and forth along the terminal to stretch out their muscles.

He opened his mouth to say something else, shutting it abruptly when his phone buzzed. Chase glanced at the screen before clicking it off and returning the phone to his pocket. He’d done that repeatedly over breakfast, although Gert just assumed he was dismissing a bunch of app notifications. She always seemed to get them at the most annoying times.

“Is that your mom? You can take it, you know.”

Chase blinked, like he’d been lost in thought, and shook his head. “Uh, no. It’s cool, I can call back later.”

Gert ignored the voice in her head that insisted _that was weird_. She had a habit of overanalyzing everything and everyone, and everything was pretty weird, if she looked into it hard enough. “Molly’s been texting me memes all morning. I swear, I don’t think she’ll ever get less upbeat.”

“That’s good. The world could use more of her unstoppable positivity.” He cleared his throat, pausing for a beat before he added, “Tell her I’m proud of her?”

 _Flutter flutter flutter._ Would it kill Chase to be thirty percent less charming? It didn’t seem fair for him to be so intelligent and caring and handsome all at the same time. He was Kryptonite to women like her. Or maybe just her.

“Yeah, of course.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “She still has that goodbye card you wrote us when you moved. I swear, your handwriting was barely legible.”

Chase snorted. “That hasn’t changed much. My roommate always feigns ignorance by claiming he can’t read the notes I leave him.”

“Some things never change, I guess.”

“Yeah.” His voice dropped a bit, and he stopped walking. Gert stilled too, surprised to find that they’d reached the end of the terminal without her noticing. “This hasn’t really changed either. You know, us.”

The air around them suddenly felt different, charged, and Gert leaned against the wall to steady herself. “Yeah. It’s kind of crazy. You’re just like I remembered.”

He pressed his back to the wall, looking at the floor instead of in her direction. “You probably would have thought differently if you ran into me a few years ago.” Chase ran a hand through his hair. Gert had no idea why he seemed so jittery, but it made her nervous, like the ground might be shifting underneath her. “I left that part out. Uh, before my mom and I left, things were pretty bad at home. I didn’t deal with it well. I was kind of an asshole for most of high school. Well, not kind of. I’m not proud of it.”

“It was high school, Chase. It’s not anyone’s finest moment.”

He laughed humorlessly. “Yeah, I know. But I knew you would disapprove. You always stood up to bullies. Fought for the people that I put down. It bothered me, knowing how you would feel about it.” Chase tilted his head, looking at her in a way that made her feel warm all over. “It’s funny. You were always the voice in my head, even when I didn’t know if I would ever see you again. I just wanted you to know that.”

Gert didn’t know what to say. She’d thought about Chase a lot in the last ten years, wondered what he was doing, if their paths might cross someday. But she never imagined that he thought about her, let alone that she would influence his life in any way.

Chase’s eyes were still intensely focused on her, and Gert thought she might know what that look meant, but she wasn’t sure. She didn’t move, didn’t say anything to break the silence, just stared back like she had the first time she saw him at the gate – without the intent to embarrass him.

Her breath caught in her throat, blood was rushing in her ears. This was absolutely the wrong time and place for Chase to kiss her, with hundreds of strangers walking past them and both of them wearing their crumpled clothes from yesterday, smelling like stale airport coffee. But she knew she would let him if he tried.

“We should go back to the gate,” he said, clearing his throat to smooth out the rough edge in his voice. “Your flight’s probably gonna board soon.”

Gert wasn’t sure if he moved away or if she’d only tricked herself into thinking he was closer, but suddenly it felt like there was a hundred miles between them. She inhaled through her nose, trying to shake herself out of her daze. _Oh, that was stupid,_ her brain sniped at her. _He was saying those things to be nice, you didn’t have to get so desperate._

The walk back to her gate was quiet and uncomfortable. Chase’s phone buzzed again, and Gert was almost grateful for the interruption.

“Just answer it. They’re going to keep calling,” she half-snapped, more to quell the silence than anything else.

“I’ll call her back after your flight leaves. I still have a few hours to wait, remember?”

 _Her._ Not his mom…someone else whose call he didn’t want to take while she was there. God, Gert was such an idiot. “It’s your girlfriend.”

Chase looked pale. “Yeah,” he admitted, not making eye contact with her. “Her name’s Jenna. She goes to MIT with me.”

Oh, perfect. She was smart. Probably beautiful. Probably sweet and great and the type of person that Gert couldn’t hate even if she wanted to.

And she was just the dumbass who fell asleep on him, told him her secrets, built up a whole _thing_ in her head that was never actually happening. Well, at least she was about to get on a plane soon and escape this entire trainwreck.

“Gert.” He sighed, flicking the switch to set his phone to silent before sliding it into his bag. “I’m sorry. I should have told you.”

Maybe. Maybe he should have, maybe he was wrong, but it didn’t really matter, and Gert wasn’t interested in diving any deeper into his love life. “You’re not obligated to tell me anything, Chase.” She tried to sound detached, and her voice was a little too tight but hopefully it was close enough to fool him. “Seriously. It’s cool. We ran into each other, we caught up, but it’s not like we’ll probably even see each other after this.”

She was definitely imagining the way his face fell at that. Just like she had imagined everything else. “Uh, yeah. Sure.”

Sometimes the universe was on her side, she guessed, because the flight attendant chose that moment to announce that they were boarding her section. “That’s my cue.”

Chase nodded, shooting her a smile. But not the truly happy kind, where his face lit up and his dimples showed. It didn’t reach his eyes. That made her sad. There was nothing more breathtaking than when Chase Stein was genuinely smiling. “It was really good to see you, Gert.”

“Yeah, you too.” She fiddled with the strap of her bag, adjusting it over her shoulder. “Have a safe flight, okay?”

“Okay.” He hesitated, like he was debating something, before he asked, “Can I give you a hug?”

Well, she had to give him bonus points for seeking consent. Gert leaned in and wrapped her arms around him, propping her chin on his shoulder. There was so much she felt like she needed to say, but untangling it was going to take longer than they had, so she bit her tongue.

She pulled back first, digging her boarding pass and passport out of her carry-on. “I have to go.”

“Yeah. Um…” Chase grabbed his wallet, rifling through it until he found a business card and handed it to her. She recognized the name of the lab he was interning with. “My cell number is on the back. Call me if you want to hang out. Once you’re home.”

She could hear in his voice that he knew it was a wasted gesture. “Yeah. I’ll see you, Chase.”

Gert spared one more glance at him before catching the end of the boarding line. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw him walking away, already tapping his phone to call Jenna.

* * *

Molly was amazing.

She looked like an adult as she strode across the stage to get her diploma, graceful and poised and so tall that Gert was a little jealous. The rest of their group was watching the ceremony on FaceTime, and she swore they cheered more loudly than anyone in the actual stadium.

“I’m so happy you’re here,” Molly said for the fiftieth time as she dug into a truly enormous bowl of pasta later. She’d insisted on having a family dinner with Gert and Graciela before going to her friend’s party. “Like, seriously, I can’t believe you _spent the night_ in the airport. You must have been so bored.”

“Yeah. Actually, I didn’t get to tell you the whole story yet.” Gert spun her fork in her spaghetti, aiming for casual as she said, “You remember Chase Stein, right?”

“Yeah, duh. Wait, did you see him?”

“Yeah. He was in the gate next to mine. Going to visit his mom. Crazy, right?”

Molly _shrieked_ , dropping her fork with a loud clang. “What? That’s so cool! Wait, he was flying from Massachusetts? Does he live there now? How is he? Did he remember me?”

“Molly, breathe,” Gert said, motioning with her hand for her sister to take it down a notch. “Yeah, he goes to MIT. He’s good. We hung out. It, uh, made the time go by pretty fast.” She pulled up the photo on her phone, sliding it across the table to Molly. “He wanted me to tell you he’s proud of you.”

Molly held up the screen, zooming in a little. “Damn. He looks good.”

“Let me see,” Graciela demanded, craning her neck. “Oh. Not bad.”

“Yeah, okay, if you’re both done drooling.” She grabbed her phone back. “Anyway. He said he’ll add everyone on Facebook.”

Her sister grinned, like she was waiting for some hot gossip. “When are you going to see him again?”

“I’m not,” Gert shrugged, turning her full attention back to her dinner. She should have known Molly was going to grill her. She’d already put off telling her for a full day; maybe it would have been better not to bring it up at all.

“Why not?” Molly said, obviously confused. Her snoop meter was now at a thousand, and there was no stopping it. “You moped over him for like, _forever_ after he left. You guys had this crazy special bond and I never figured out why you didn’t keep in touch. Plus,” she pointed to the photo, “you’ve seen him, right?”

She hated that Molly was right. She hated it even more than the ache in her chest when she looked at the photo, his arm around her, his smile warm and genuine. She hated how happy _she_ looked.

“He has a girlfriend, so…” Gert shook her head, wisps of purple hair clinging to her cheek. “It would be weird. Like, what, I go hang out with them? Third wheel? Sometimes it’s better to let one good experience just be one good experience, you know?”

She didn’t miss the glance that passed between Molly and Graciela. “Gert,” Molly said calmly, which was usually a good sign that Molly was about to say something mature and make Gert feel like the little sister. “You don’t have to see him again if you don’t want to. But you guys always just got each other. I think it would be a shame to write that off completely.”

_You were always the voice in my head, even when I didn’t know if I would ever see you again._

She had never forgotten Chase Stein. There probably wasn’t much chance of it happening now, no matter what she did.

“Shut up and eat your pasta,” Gert grumbled, but from her sister’s smile, she knew Molly heard _thank you_.

* * *

_Just do it, you big coward._

Gert had debated over this all week, working up the courage and then backing out, before finally deciding she would wait until she got back to Massachusetts to call. Specifically, as soon as she got to baggage claim, since she would probably be waiting around for a while with nothing to do, and she had to set some kind of deadline or she would never rip off the band aid.

She stepped off the shuttle and immediately grabbed her phone, trying to clear her head so she wouldn’t talk herself out of it again. He _wanted_ her to call, he’d given her his number. And he had a girlfriend, so what? She could get over her attraction, but she knew her world would be better with Chase in it – as a friend. As anything.

She called him.

He didn’t answer.

Gert felt her heart drop into her stomach. She hung up before his answering machine message ended. That was a whole other thing she needed to mentally prepare for.

“Excuse me, do you know where the baggage claim for G17 is?” She frowned at the voice behind her, spinning around and feeling her heart stop when she came face-to-face with Chase. He was grinning like an idiot. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she said, dumbfounded. “I was just calling you.”

“You were?”

Gert nodded. “What…what are you doing here? I thought your flight came back yesterday.”

“Yeah. It did. Um…” He scratched the back of his neck. “I didn’t like the way we left things. And I was pretty sure I was never going to hear from you again, and I really don’t want that, Gert, so I felt like I needed to explain everything to you. In person.”

The room was spinning. Gert shook her head. “You don’t owe me an explanation, Chase.”

“Okay, but I want to give you one.” Chase shifted, pushing his hands into his pockets. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard the baggage carousel come to life, but it barely registered. “Jenna and I broke up.”

That was the last thing she’d expected him to say, and she had no idea how to respond. “I’m sorry,” she said, because that seemed safe. And it was true. Sort of.

“Thanks. I should have told you about her, but honestly, things weren’t right for a while. I was just kind of lost, I wasn’t sure what I wanted. And then I ran into you.” His eyes landed on her, and Gert felt like she was trying to breathe underwater. “I always thought about you, Gert. I thought about reaching out to you for ten years, but I always chickened out. And then we were literally trapped here together, it felt like a sign or something.”

Gert couldn’t think straight. A week ago, Chase was a memory from the past, and now he was standing in front of her, delivering a very romantic speech that she was apparently incapable of reacting to.

He exhaled, his eyebrows going up. “Am I crazy? Showing up here? You’re looking at me like you have no idea what I’m talking about, and it’s making me really nervous.”

Oh, god. She had to say something, or she was going to blow this. “I don’t believe in signs,” Gert blurted out, wincing when she saw hurt flicker over Chase’s face. “Sorry, that was blunt. What I meant is that I don’t believe in signs. And you’re right, I wasn’t going to call you. But I changed my mind because that was stupid. I want you in my life, Chase.”

His grin came back in full force, and he stepped closer, cautiously taking her hand in his and relaxing when she didn’t pull away. “Can we start with me driving you back to your apartment?”

“Yeah,” she said, tangling their fingers together and squeezing. “Let’s get my bag and get the hell out of this place.”


End file.
